Information Sharing - Please Read

Your GP Practice, like all other Practices in Gloucestershire, has historically worked with NHS Gloucestershire CCG to receive support in providing the best possible treatment and care to patients. This is achieved through sharing data with the CCG from our GP system to:

:: Enable regular clinical audits of the care we deliver to our patients

:: For support with identifying patients at risk

:: Support with medicines use and management

:: Support commissioners in understanding the care needs of our patients, to evaluate current care programmes and design new care pathways and services that reflect the specific needs of our patients

This is a common practice across the NHS and has been in place in our practice for some time.

What is changing?

The way in which your GP Practice provides the information to the CCG will need to change from April 2018. This is because the tools that were previously used to perform the data extracts will no longer be available from April 2018.

Rather than manually extracting and providing data to the CCG separately, multiple times for different purposes across the year, which take a lot of staff time and effort at the practice, we are working with the CCG to set up a single, secure automated routine process to extract and share only the required information from our practice system, as done previously.

The new automated process we are designing will require less time and effort and will be easier for your GP Practice to manage, freeing our time to focus on the most important duty which is to provide the best care to our patients.

How does this help you, the patient?

:: Clinical audit helps to ensure that patients can be diagnosed as early as possible and allow us to work with you to design appropriate care that help improve the quality of life. It has the potential to save lives by ensuring diagnosis is made at an early stage so treatment can start as soon as possible.

:: Identifying patients at different levels of risk of particular conditions (risk-stratification) support GPs to understand the health needs of their patients more accurately. It can help identify patients at risk of developing diseases; prevent conditions from becoming more serious or to identify groups of patients that may benefit from additional clinical care.

Analysing defined groups of patients gives the insight we need as clinicians to offer you the opportunities for better quality, equity and efficiency of care.

:: Reviewing medication helps to improve patient safety by ensuring patients are getting the right medicines at the right time.

:: Undertaking population wide analysis for commissioning helps us as clinicians to better understand the care needs of our patients, review existing care services and see whether they are delivering the results for our patients. This knowledge can then be used to design improved care pathways and services working in partnership with our patients and local health and social care partners, to make sure services are provided to meet the local custom needs of our patients.

What information is shared and how is my privacy protected?

In line with clear NHS England guidance and Data Protection laws, Personal or Confidential information about you is never shared with anyone other than doctors, nurses or clinicians involved in caring for you.

Only non-identifiable health and care related information such as the below are shared to allow the above mentioned important work to take place:

:: Health conditions patients suffer in the local area

:: The types and frequency of appointments and care delivered to patients

:: Medicines prescribed and dispensed for treatment of different conditions

:: How well a new or existing service has been accessed and used by patients

NHS numbers are instead used to enable GPs and clinicians to identify patients under their care.

NHS Gloucestershire CCG with whom the data is shared, follows strict NHS England governed guidelines to ensure that the information about patients it receives is anonymised and analysed securely and confidentially in line with the latest Data Protection laws and Information Security guidance issued by the government. This means personal or confidential details such as your name and address are never shared.

If you would like more information, please speak to your GP practice and they will guide you.

Can I Opt-out of this?

If you do not want this non-confidential information about you from your GP Practice system to be shared with NHS Gloucestershire CCG, for the above outlined purposes, you have the right to opt-out. You can do this by informing your GP practice who will record and respect your wishes. This however, will mean your details will be excluded from all local clinical audits and may mean you miss out on the key patient benefits listed above.